Originally from:
The Journal of Eurasian Law (JEL) - 2008 Vol. 2 No. 3
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Behind the Red Curtain: Environmental
Concerns and the End of Communism
Joseph W. Dellapenna*
In May 1992, I led a delegation of seven American environmental
lawyers to the People’s Republic of China to consult on the Three Gorges
Dam. Ground had not yet been broken for the dam; today it towers 175
meters (540 feet) above the bed of the Yangtze River and creates a reservoir
that is nearly filled—15 meters (47 feet) deep some 500 kilometers (312
miles) upstream from the dam, making the dam and its reservoir the largest
in the world.1 We (the delegation) were going both to learn about the dam
and to provide insights about the project drawn from our legal experience.
About a month before we arrived, the delegation lost significance when the
National People’s Congress voted to authorize the dam; by the time we
arrived at the dam site (after meetings in Beijing), preliminary work had
begun that would lead to the breaking of ground for the dam a few weeks
later. It was apparent then that our function was to help justify the project
by reporting that it would be compatible with a healthy environment. We
were a disappointment to our hosts because we came away deeply skeptical
of the project and said so in our report.
We were not alone.2 Unmentioned by our hosts was that the project had
encountered major public resistance locally and nationally and that more
Joseph W. Dellapenna, Professor of Law, Villanova University; B.B.A., Univ. of Mich. (1965); J.D., Detroit College of Law (1968); LL.M. in International and Comparative Law, George Washington Univ. (1969); LL.M. (in Environmental Law), Columbia Univ. (1974). Professor Dellapenna served as Rapporteur of the Water Resources Committee of the International Law Association, and in that capacity led the drafting of the Berlin Rules on Water Resources (2004). He is also Director of the Model Water Code Project of the American Society of Civil Engineers.